sorry if this question has been answered before, but I can't seem to locate it.

I am trying to generate a .epub from images in a .cbr. I've used Calibre to achieve this, but I have one problem. When I buy a comic from the Apple Store, the page is fully filled. When I convert my digital collection, I have these annoying white borders all around, as seen here:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19954147/IMG_0005.PNG

What do I need to do to remove them and make the image fill up the entire page? I've messed around with the xhtml pages and image sizes, but without any luck.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Jellby

11-04-2012, 04:27 PM

Use a different ePub reader (I mean, a different app in your iPad)...

Eviler

11-05-2012, 01:39 AM

The problem is not the reader, I've tried others but they all have it. And it works perfectly on store bought books. It's just the ones I've bought in cbr and try to convert that give a problem (and I don't want to spend double money).

I think it's a problem in the xhtml of the pages, but I've tried (probably) every form of setting margin, padding, border, ... I could think of.

My question is: What do I need to do to make the images full paper size?

Jellby

11-05-2012, 05:18 AM

Different readers may have different settings. Some let you change the default margins on the fly, some have fixed rather large margins you cannot change.

Then, Calibre has many settings too, some of them may be affecting the relative dimensions of the images, or how they are interpreted.

Additionally, the comics you bought may have been in "fixed layout" format, which is something contrived by Apple that as far as I know is only understood by iBooks and does not conform the ePub spec, at least not version 2.0.1 (I believe there's something about it in ePub 3, but I don't know if it's the same as Apple's).

Anyway, wouldn't it be easier to install a comic-reading app in you iPad?

Eviler

11-05-2012, 05:34 AM

It probably would be easier to install a cbr reader, but when I encounter a problem, I always want to find a solution that involves actually solving the problem and not find a secondary route around it.

Is there any com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml setting like for the full bleed?

thanks!

Eviler

11-05-2012, 06:12 AM

I think I answered my own question. I'm going to try using the apple specific xml file when I get home from work. If I get it working, I'll post the solution here for future reference :)

Aerys

11-05-2012, 10:12 PM

There is no setting in the "com.apple.ibooks.display-options.xml" that controls the display size of the images.

Display size of the images are usually controlled via CSS or inside the XHTML in the IMG tag.

iBooks usually displays images in full bleed if the actual image size is larger than the iPad's display size, IF there is no CSS controlling it.

mzmm

11-10-2012, 07:04 AM

pages are only rendered full bleed in ibooks with fixed layout epub 3.0s. to get the effect you're talking about, you'll need to restructure the epub so that the metadata and epub assets conform to the epub3 guidelines (see here: http://idpf.org/epub/30, usually you'll just need to update the opf and create a toc.xhtml), and create a separate page for each full bleed image. each xhtml page will require you to set viewport dimensions with the viewport meta tag, and these dimensions need to be consistent throughout the epub. this will look like

<meta name="viewport" content="width=750, height=1200" />

and you'll want to adjust the w x h to suit you. you'll also need to include the apple display options xml in the META-INF folder while supplying the appropriate values mentioned by Aerys.

i don't know of a good epub3 converter, but if you had a pdf of the books you could generate a fixed layout epub3 online with http://www.blurb.com/ or a similar service.

I believe there's something about it in ePub 3, but I don't know if it's the same as Apple's

epub3 specs supply guidelines for fixed layout, and epub3s created for ibooks pass epubcheck 3.0b4 validation. they can also be read on calibre, azardi, and using chrome's readium extension. the only apple specific contents required for ibooks are the display.options xml, which does not affect validation.

Anyway, wouldn't it be easier to install a comic-reading app in you iPad?

i think so too, but hope this helps!

HarryT

11-10-2012, 12:35 PM

One thing to note is that, when you convert a book in Calibre, the output profile that you have selected can resize images. You should select the "Tablet" output profile to suppress image resizing.